With a population roughly the same size as China India consumes 4.5 times less electricity. India does export a small portion of it's electricity production but in general loses 174 billion kWh (=32.5%) annually in produced but unconsumed electricity.

India consumes about the same amount of natural gas vs. China but less than 50% of China's oil requirements :

Country

Annual oil cons. mln tonnes

% share annual prod.

Annual gas cons. mln tonnes

% share annual prod.

USA

914.3

25

566.8

24.3

Germany

96.4

2.7

77.0

3.3

Netherlands

44.5

1.2

35.4

1.5

Indonesia

53.9

1.5

32.0

1.4

Malaysia

23.9

0.7

25.6

1.1

Thailand

38.7

1.1

23.9

1.0

China

275.2

7.6

29.5

1.3

India

133.3

3.1

27.1

1.2

India already foresees that the development of it's near future energy demands will further strain the world's production capacity and the country is urgently searching for ways and means to achieve Energy Independence.

Domestic use now ranks no. 1 in electricity-use and there are still 125,000 villages all over India without any form of electricity. The goal is to have all villages electrified by 2009.

Energy consumption growth 2000 - 2004 :

Source

% Increase Demand

Coal

11.2

Oil

17.8

Gas

15.4

Electricity

14.0

With 17% of the world's population and only 0.8% of the global oil and gas reserves India needs to make preparations to achieve energy independence immediately in order to be able to sustain further growth. The government has declared this India's first and foremost priority and must be achieved by 2030.

Currently 89% of the annual electricity production is being generated by indigeneous sources :- Coal : 56%- Hydro power : 25%- Nuclear power : 3%- Renewable sources : 5%

By 2030 India wants to be able to generate 50% of it's electricity needs from coal or roughly 2.0 trillion kWh. Environmental hazards are recognized.

The use of renewable energy sources e.g. solar and wind power need to be increased from 5% now to 25% in 2030. Since farmers mostly work during daylight hours solar power could foresee to a large extend in their needs.

India is currently the world's 5th largest producer of wind energy with an annual capacity of 3.0 billion kWh. Together with solar power it is one if the governments main focus of energy creation.